Exercise & its Specific Benefits

We all know about the benefits of exercise in general, that regular physical activity keeps an individual healthy and so on. But many of us may not be aware of the exact health benefits of exercise, especially aerobic physical activities. This article is for highlighting the specific health benefits that you will derive from regular aerobic physical activities. Sometimes your doctor may ask you to do regular physical exercise as part of management of a specific disease, such as heart disease or diabetes.

The specific health benefits that one can achieve from regular aerobic physical activity are:

• Reduce body weight.
• Lower High blood pressure.
• Prevent heart disease & stroke.
• Prevent back pain.
• Prevent or delay type-2 diabetes.
• Prevent osteoporosis.
• Psychological and miscellaneous benefits.

Obesity & exercise:

Perhaps the best benefit one can get from regular aerobic physical activity is reduction and control of body weight, especially for obese persons. By keeping body weight under control regular physical activity can benefit immensely to maintain good health. As obesity is a major risk factor for many diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and other heart diseases, reduction of body weight can be of great help in preventing these diseases.

High Blood Pressure & exercise:

Regular physical activity can reduce blood pressure, although it may not bring down pressure to normal in an individual with hypertension. By bringing down blood pressure regular physical activity can help prevent/reduce many diseases due to high blood pressure and many heart diseases.

Back pain & Exercise:

Regular physical activity can relieve back pain by strengthening the muscles and by improving flexibility and posture.

Type-2 diabetes & exercise:

Various studies have shown that, regular physical activity can prevent or delay development of type2 diabetes or NIDDM (non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus).

Osteoporosis & exercise:

Regular weight bearing exercise can promote bone formation and prevent bone loss due to aging thereby preventing osteoporosis.

Miscellaneous benefits of exercise:

A person who does regular exercise have better mood, than person who lives sedentary lifestyle. You will feel fresh and rejuvenated if you do regular physical exercise. Many studies have suggested that regular physical exercise can reduce depression and anxiety and also help in coping with stress better.

So, keep doing regular exercise and enjoy the specific health benefits of regular physical activity. If you are not doing exercise regularly at present start doing and live healthy, wealthy and happy.

Should You Drink Tea Regularly?

The answer to the above question is and affirmative “yes”, although there may be much opinion to the above question. But my personal belief is to drink tea regularly, especially green tea, which has enormous health benefits.

The answer of the above question is answered, but how much tea should a person drink a day to get the maximum health benefits of tea? In my opinion (which is opinion of majority of authorities and scientists and nutritionists) one should drink 4-6 cups (approximately 180-200 ml per cup) of tea everyday. Drinking 4-6 cups of tea can reduce incidence of cancers such as stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, skin cancer etc. To get the health benefits of green tea drinking tea on a regular basis is important, instead of drinking large amount of tea in a short time.

Is there any harmful effect (action) of tea?

The only negative effect of tea till date reported is insomnia. The insomnia due to drinking tea is due to presence of caffeine in tea, including green tea. A cup (approximately 180-200 ml) of green tea contains approximately 40 mgs of caffeine in compare to approximately 85 mgs of caffeine in a freshly brewed coffee of same quantity, according to the American Dietetic Association. Excess drinking of tea in short time, especially if drank during night time can lead to insomnia and inability to fall asleep. The concentration of caffeine in green tea (if consumed large amount in short period of time) can lead to insomnia and if you are already suffering from insomnia it is advisable not to drink tea after sunset to avoid the insomnia effect of caffeine present in tea.

Anticancer and Anti Diabetic Health Benefits of Tea

There are enormous health benefits of tea, especially green tea, and the anti cancer and anti diabetic health benefits of tea are discussed here.

Several studies suggest that tea; especially green tea can protect us from certain cancers such as breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancers and prostate cancer. A study in Japan found that the antioxidants such as epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG present in tea are the reason for protection from cancer. The study found that two to three cups of green tea contain enough epigallocatechin gallate to help in prevent growth of lung cancer cells. The growth of lung cancer cells is slowed due to blocking of a receptor called 67 LR present in lung cancer cells by epigallocatechin gallate. Another study found that if a person drinks only a cup of green tea a day has five times less chance of developing lung cancer in compare to a person who does not drink green tea.

The local application of green tea extract on the sun exposed surface of skin can prevent photoaging of skin as well as skin cancer to some extent by protecting skin from harmful ultraviolet light, especially harmful UVA (ultraviolet-A) and UVB (ultraviolet-B). Ultraviolet-B rays are more harmful and responsible for causing cancer. So green tea extract by protecting skin from ultraviolet-B light can reduce the incidence of skin cancer to a great extent.

The anti diabetic benefits of tea are exerted by the increased sensitivity of insulin and by improved glucose tolerance by tea, although not yet proved conclusively. Epidemiological studies and surveys suggest that drinking of tea on regular basis can reduce the incidence of diabetes in a community or population to some extent.

Related Articles:

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5281046.stm

Health Benefits of Tea

Tea has many health benefits and we all are aware of it. The enormous health benefits of tea can be best explained by a Chinese proverb “you can go without food for a week, but can not go without tea for a day”. Tea is a source of several healthy ingredients such as antioxidants, minerals and vitamins to name a few. Tea is only next to water for replacing fluid in our body, and water only replace the body fluid but tea can supply many nutrients along with replacing water for the body.

Some of the health benefits of tea are mentioned here and they are

• Tea has anticancer properties and tea is credited with preventing certain cancers due to presence of large amounts of antioxidants in tea.
• Tea can boost mental alertness and help to remain awake and very helpful for students, especially before exams. Tea helps in remaining calm as well as alert.
• Tea has some anti diabetic properties and can postpone development of type II diabetes among susceptible individuals.
• Tea increases the metabolic rate and help in improving fat metabolism and also causes increase energy expenditure. Increase energy expenditure is useful for obese persons to maintain body weight.
• There are several ingredients in tea which can improve the immune system of our body.
• Tea can be useful in halitosis or bad breath, as polyphenols contained in tea can inhibit the bacteria which cause bad breath.
• A study in Japan showed that drinking tea is associated with reduced rate of psychological distress such as depression.
• Tea can help in reducing cardiovascular health problems as found in a study conducted by University of L’Aquila funded by Lipton Tea Institute.

Here only some of the health benefits of tea among several other health benefits are discussed. Tea has many other health benefits.

Related articles/sites/blogs:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tea

Cardiovascular Health Benefits of Exercise

The health benefits of exercise are known to all of us. But many of us may not know the important health benefits, exercise imparts on various body systems. Here is a brief discussion about the health benefits of exercise on cardiovascular system, especially moderate aerobic physical activity.

The most important health benefits regular physical exercise imparts is on cardiovascular system. Regular physical exercise can bring down high blood pressure to some extent. It is possible to lower (generally do not come down to normal, but reduce blood pressure) blood pressure, if high only with exercise alone, without any other form of treatment such as medications, diet and salt restriction etc. although the high blood pressure may not become normal with exercise alone. This is the direct action of moderate physical exercise on cardiovascular system.

The health benefits of moderate physical exercise also has indirect actions and benefits, which are equally or more important then the direct health benefits. Regular physical exercise reduces body weight in obese and overweight individuals. Obesity is very commonly associated with hypertension. By lowering body weight, regular exercise can help in lowering blood pressure. Obesity is also associated with several other medical problems such as arthritis (due to higher pressure to the weight bearing joints such as knee joints, due to increased body weight), diabetes etc. to name a few.

Regular physical exercise can prevent heart attacks by lowering LDL (low density lipoprotein) or bad cholesterol and by increasing HDL (high density lipoprotein) or good cholesterol level in blood. LDL is responsible for deposition in the wall of the arteries of the heart and slowly blocks the blood vessels, which cause gradual reduction of blood supply to the area supplied by the particular artery which leads to heart attacks. Regular physical exercise can improve the working capacity of the heart and also improves blood supply to the area where there is reduced blood supply due to narrowing of blood vessels.

Another great benefit regular exercise can have is, regaining of self esteem and mental health by obese individual after returning to normal or near normal body weight. Obese individuals are generally depressed and they tend to withdraw themselves from society and keep on eating which makes them more depressed. Exercise can help bring those obese individuals back on normal track.

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